Text Messaging May Not Be The Downfall Of Man

Apparently English professors are wrong about the fall of man happening due to OMG! chatspeak. The abbreviated conversations we have on IM or in text messages have long been troubling to those who enjoy the written word. A recent study from Cornell University has proven that this is just not the case. Good news for those of us who have long held that baggy pants barely hanging on to the wearer is the true culprit in the demise of our youth today.

Joseph Hancock and a team at Cornell University studied 44 pairs using SMS and IM to determine if the emotional human connection is lost using the modern communication. What they found may surprise a few people. Not only was there no loss in emotional connection, it was on par with a real world conversation.

The 44 pairs chatted online for 15-20 while Hancock asked them questions about one another, including what was bothering them at the time. One person from each scene watched a scene from Sophie’s Choice. The other participant watched a clip of some minor small talk. During the chats the people were able to correctly asses each other’s mood, and those who had been chatting with a participant watching Sophie’s Choice came away feeling a little worse off than when they started.

So there you have it, you can have an emotional bond with someone over IM. r u ok? ttyl